Letters to the editor

Published 5:38 pm, Monday, February 4, 2013

To the editor:

Christopher W. Hunt's three-part series (Feb. 1-3) on former Greenwich resident Steve Young stirred up many memories of the NFL Hall of Famer's early and formative years growing up. As a town native who grew up then, it brings back to life the Greenwich of my youth, and the many people of that era who left an indelible mark on our town. The article also does an amazing job of introducing Steve Young, and a much simpler time here, to the many residents who are now living in the area who had not yet arrived in Greenwich at the time when the Young family resided in town.

Mr. Hunt evokes not only the familiar names of the time . . . Gasparino, Perry, Sheehan, Symington, Gangi, to name a few, but the days when parents let their children go down to the local park, or street corner, for a nine-on-nine pick-up game of baseball, without a cell phone to trace their whereabouts, or having to plan a whole day's activities.

Back then, before the advent of computers and video games, being outside, learning to play the sport of the season you were presently in, making friends, and yes, even fighting and making up, were all experiences that were left to youngsters to figure out on their own. The narrative tells of coaches leaving impressions that would last a lifetime, of the concerns of a boy who may not have always been at ease, but through the guidance, tough love, and friendship of the neighborhood kids and teammates, learned to give it his all. It is evident in this series that Steve Young has a deep sense of pride in the Greenwich of his youth.

While times change, and people mature and move to other locations, the one constant we have is the memory of our childhood, of our years spent exploring and being presented with life's many situations and experiences. Mr. Hunt does a remarkable job of telling one young boy's story. In this case, the little boy ends up being enshrined in the National Football League's Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. He does, however, also tell the story of a whole generation of Greenwich kids who came of age in the 1970s, who share a love of those times, of their friends, of those lessons learned.

I find it most distressing looking at the new "Cattle Pen Park" in Stamford. The fences that have been put up along both sides of the walk at Mill River Park west side look like the fences used to herd cattle into the holding pen where they are vaccinated or worse, slaughtered.

How is the park people-friendly when people are herded by fences on both sides of the walkways through the park and can't even step on the grass? Mill River Park used to be a friendly place where people could wander anywhere within it, fish by the river's edge, and sit under the cherry trees. Now with these ugly new fences you can't leave the walkways. What's the point of having a park if you can't take a blanket and sit on the ground or walk your dog on the grass?